I asked Christopher Walken ‘Do you mind painting over a Banksy?’
STAR CAST:
Did you get to meet him?
He must have come over the fence one night, because we didn’t ever see him. We never met him.
One morning we came in and there was a Banksy. We kept it hidden and then, about six weeks later, I went to Christopher Walken in his trailer and said ‘Do you mind painting over a Banksy this morning?’ We swore the cast and crew to secrecy, and everyone kept it quiet.
Was there any behind-the-scenes drama this time around?
Well, obviously, the biggest mishap is when our 20ft costume truck ended up in Bristol Harbour – and that was just for my shoes.
The truth is, we don’t know how it ended up in the harbour, but all of the costumes were in that truck, and are now all covered in Bristol mud. Luckily, it was the last day of filming, so we’d shot everything. And it was funny because the image of that truck, half-submerged in the harbour, sort of became a little meme going around, and people put all sorts of things on the side – ‘Brexit!’ or whatever.
Did any actors message you in an attempt to secure a role ahead of series two?
I think Breaking Bad does it very well – when you’ve given your characters a series of problems, to just keep leaning into those problems. So instead of just having an ‘Oh, everything’s fine now!’, any problems you can think of, just magnify them.
And so all the headaches that have occurred in the first series just magnify. It’s all about how they get themselves out of those problems.
The characters undertake some money laundering activities this time around. How much research went into your writing?
My experience of running criminal enterprises is surprisingly small, I’m ashamed to say. But we did have a researcher called Hugo who was very helpful. He’s done a lot of research and documentaries about criminal gangs and the way they operate.
We spoke to some lawyers as well about money laundering and I was quite interested to discover that the UK is one of the best places to launder money in the world.
More so than cinematic cliches like South America?
You’d think it was offshore companies and stuff, but they’ve tightened up the rules, whereas we haven’t. So, yeah, I don’t want to use this opportunity to advertise to criminal gangs, but it turns out that we’re a really terrific place for laundering cash.
The Outlaws returns to BBC1 and iPlayer tomorrow at 9pm
■